Friday, 27 February 2009

Pubs are boring. Not in the usual meaning of the word. Just boring for hands.I cut out the inside and turned the edges in. The whole tunic's neckline was whip stitched in a pub:)I'm very happy that the tubes worked. It just a detail, but I feel joy like a child. Actually, I still am a child:-P

Thursday, 26 February 2009

An order from a friend of mine. Easy patter (early medieval), cheerful work.This is the wrong side. I drew the shape with a marker and pinned a square of fabric to the right side. You can't see here that there is a tube between the two layers. It should be sewn over only at the vertical linesThe excess cut and serged neatly. I'm curious whether the trick with the tube will work..By the way, today I acted reasonably and made the tube a from bias cut stripe of fabric.At this light fabric, a light stitch should always be used at least at the neckline serging. In other words I had to give up my favourite heavy stitch and use a zig-zag here:)The sleeves are simple trapezia. Sewn to the body - the right side to the right side.

Wednesday, 25 February 2009

There are only a few details I want to bring you today from the construction of the Thirty-Year War chemise.The pattern for the sleeves was easy, symmetrical (taken from the pattern for men's T-shirt). The upper part of the sleeve's head should have been gathered as well, but in the end I just made a few pleats with the help of pins.Before sewing the sleeves on, I basted them to the body (I'm ceasing to be lazy, you see? :-D).The sleeve should be decorated at the wrist. I sewed the lace on before sewing the sleeve together.The lace seemed too wide for a man to me. I zig-zagged the it to the edge of the sleeve, serging the sleeve at the same time. The side you see is the right one.As the zig-zag serges well, I could cut the lace's bottom part off. Carefully.Then I folded the lace downwards, strained this with both hands (you know, here I needed one hand to hold the camera:) ) and sewed with straight stitch a mm from the interface.

Tuesday, 24 February 2009

It's been a long time since I showed how I created a pocket for sock poi.First, I always make the embroidery on one of the pieces.Then I serge the upper sides.I cut three stripes of different colour and place them on the right side of one of the rectangles. I cover it with the other rectangle (right side down) and sew along the edge.So I sew these two rectangles together with the right sides inside. I may start or stop sewing a few centimeters from the upper side if I want to make a hole in the future tunnel for the cord.Before serging I don't forget to snip the lower corners. Carefully, not to damage the stitches.I turn the pocket over. Then I fold the upper side inside and sew with the stitch that looks like a serif capital V. That's a bit symbolic as the historical group I'm a member of has the initials V.V.By the way, this is a suicidal choice. Every slowing down or accelerating during sewing is terribly visible.The last step is easy - cutting off the waste threads and snipping the stripes to Indian-like style.

Monday, 23 February 2009

The pockets are now finished. I cut four straps from leather and tied them together, each two together. The fastening still needs dome debugging, but for this bag, this is all.This item's done. It's nice to know you exceptionally have a present in advance:-P

Wednesday, 18 February 2009

I bought this little buckle and made a pattern for this decorative fastening. It's uneasy to snip these curved shapes with scissors or rotary cutter - this time I used my modelling scalpel. I also couldn't use the thing I still don't know the name of to mark regular distances between stitches. So I just made holes at important points and then serched for halves between them, and then halves between these halves:)I marked the center of the lid and the body of the bag with a sellotape. I placed the leaf on it and transferred the holes to the right spot.I used the two-needle straight stitch again. I tried the whole thing, so that I could find out the right length of the straps and insert the buckle. Now, after having sewn this fastening, I was lucky to find out it's probably period. Look here:-)The bag could already be used, but it still seemed too simple and uninteresting to me.If you had been hunting for some medieval bags' pictures, you must have notices this type of spherical side pockets. My grateful thanks for these photos belong to Tristán.I also took inspiration from this really uncredible blog.I made this pattern for the pockets. The original paper pattern was then used for making the right shape of the line of holes on the bag. Again, I was punching with a bunch of fabric in the bag.I couldn't help myself with the marker of distances, I had to just guess where the next hole should be.. Then, one more line was done above the previous, always between each two holes.You might have noticed the holes on the pockets were made quite far from the edge. I folded this excess inside and whip-stitched the pockets to the body of the bag. This required a lot of tightening and a lot of wax:)They were too flat and didn't form nice spheres. Too thick leather and stitches outside the pockets I guess. You could have seen a curve at the top of the pockets' pattern. To flatten them, I made the arch more shallow. I symmetrically cut the middles of the pockets and then finished each part separately with scissors.As I don't have my hole punchers here, you must wait for the finish until I get home:)

Tuesday, 17 February 2009

Once I bought this little tool for transfering patterns. I've never actually used it. For the leather it's perfect. I mark regular distances for stitches. I use every second dot.I don't have an awl and my awl's tip is far now.. I have to use a big upholstery needle. As it requires a lot of strength to punch the leather through, I lay the needle on the carpet and press the leather against it.When I have all the holes I may eventually start sewing. I'm just a beginner as far as leather, but I gained one piece of experience. Working with leather is not as fast as sewing fabrics. It takes time to bring up the leather so that it would obey you :) Education mustn't be rash.I have a book from library that tought me this great two-needle stitch. You thread one needle to each end of the thread. The rest is like basting from two directions. You make a stitch forward and then, with the other needle, you make a stitch through the same hole. Then tighten. In fact, I tighten the stitches after almost every move.One thing that helps me is wax. I wax the thread before sewing and from time to time a bit near to the stitches. Working with waxed thread is fine. It doesn't rub so much (rubbing causes damage that shows up as hairs on the cord) and it lets the thread slip. When I had the stitch before the recent one loose, I wasn't able to effectively tighten it. Now it glides like a snake.Finishing the seam proceeds as three stitches backwards. Now I have the body of the bag. Next step is a lid.Attaching the lid to the body took another two-needle stitch. At one side it looks like crosses, at the other like doubled vertical stitches. It's very simple - each diagonal is made by one needle.OK, the lid is done. I looked at the bag and found out I don't like one thing. The sides bend outside so that they escape from the lid's reach. Stupid.But one stitch did for resolving this:-)The swivels. I punched hole on the straps. Then I placed the straps on the bag and transferred the dots with a thin needle to the body. I put a handful of useless fabric inside and punched the holes through with the big needle.The straps finished. I came back to my custom of a knot at the end of seam. I should go a few stitches back and just cut the cord out, but I just can't get over this habit:)This is all for today. It was a long day, believe me.

Monday, 16 February 2009

I have a new project. My friend's birthday is next month. I know that I always get or make presents at the last moment, and I also know a proper medieval bag would be useful for him.And I have a new cutting mat:-) Now I can already try my rotary cutter. I didn't think I would ever use it for leather, but I hope it won't damage it. Cutting leather with a rotary cutter is really fabulous; and I even tried to cut out curved edges with it in a flush of euphory :-DThis is the basic pattern. I'm good enough to snip it out of the leather. However, whether I'm good enough to make a bag of it we'll find out tomorrow..

Saturday, 14 February 2009

It's the Valentine's Day. What to say... This is the leather bracer on the strong arm of my brave warrior.By the way, I understand many people hate this day. I take it easy. Any opportunity to give a present to my love comes in handy:-)

Wednesday, 11 February 2009

This happened on our holiday in Austria. We were living in a private appartment and this nice cat came to see us. She was huge, the right mountain tiger:-)
When my boyfriend wanted to make a snowman, I refused. I don't see any special point in making three spheres of snow and putting them one on another. I prefered to make a little statue inpired by the beauty mentioned above:-)
As his sphere took more time than my kitty, I remembered one more animal to bring it to our yard. Our alsatian. He loves snow so much:-)
I wanted a life-sized version, but in the end this dog was smaller. However, I managed to capture one of his most frequent positions when one comes close to him. Scratch-me-please-I-am-poor-little-dog:-P

Friday, 6 February 2009

I punched the centers of the circles out and prepared some studs.Then I could make the layout again. Now I marked a position of each circle with the awl tip so that I would know where to make holes for the studs.Father doesn't know I used his screw driver's cusp as a stamp :-OI use a fake leather so I can only believe the lines would last.The whole concept before adding the circles. First I wanted straps as fastening, but finally I submitted that I'm better at lacing :)The almost finished bracer on a tiny arm. The decorations standed apart, which can be seen in the picture.And guess what! I took adhesive and glued it. Glueholic seamstress.Now, Saint Valentine can come:-)

Thursday, 5 February 2009

What to give to a brave warrior for the Valentine's Day?:-)I took the pattern from the fireshow bracers - I didn't even have to take his measures. I only edited the upper part. I didn't make a new pattern so this is how I kept the symmetry:)When sister got a game for Christmas I asked her for this sheet of circular pieces she'd wanted to throw away. I knew they would come handy:-) I marked the circles by an awl tip (when I am a big rich girl I will buy a whole awl:-D) and snipped out with a pair of scissors.This is the basic layout of the circles on the bracer. All for today.